Probably a bad sign if Saitou and Margery are the voices of reason. And there’s no melonpan. No… melon… pan…

(When I saw the preview for the next episode, I was questioning my will to live to watch it.)

I remember the Shana OVA where Margery gives out doles out life lessons, and I was thinking, “Whoa, she’s like the Shakugan no Shana version of Dr. Phil.” Well, she does it again here by trying to help the girls out of their funk, in a round about way. The non-Flame Haze elements of this series is pretty much built around unrequited love, and if this just continues without resolution, ugh. It’s one thing to see Team Rocket try and fail to capture pokemon like a billion times, but it’s not as fun watching Shana, Ogata, Yoshida, and Ike stumble around with their unrequited crushes like a billion times. Someone needs to make a move! Someone needs to start landing some hard blows!

I’m not a big boxing fan, but when I do watch it, I don’t like the matches that people consider “poetry” or “art” where the pugilists just plug back and forth with jabs. It’s boxing! It’s supposed to be two people beating the shit out of each other! If you want artistic expression, go watch PBS, not The Contender. For the past 30 episodes, 1 OVA, and 3 Shana-tan adventures, that’s pretty much what we’ve been getting: jabs back and forth. I want the uppercuts, the bloodbath, the ear biting. It’s about time. Or we can just sit back and rinse and repeat the cycle of “get Shana romantically flustered by a new romantic rival and somehow work that in the context of a devious tomagura plan.” What next, we’ll get yet another romantic rival but it’s the original creator of Reiji Maigo? OH SHI-

Melonpanriffic

I am kinda disappointed that Yoshida shared the secret with Shana. I miss Shana-tan’s version of Yoshida. That Yoshida would most definitely have poisoned Hecate’s food and then told Shana the opposite advice: “Hey, I just heard from Margery. If you’re feeling this jealous, you need to make Yuji jealous. She gave me the address of this pr0n producer…”

(But I am happy that we’re getting back on track.)

Also a bit disappointed that Ogata didn’t charge Margery with a kitchen knife. They’re in a kitchen, after all. Another missed opportunity.

When you were in high school (or if you’re still in high school, yet visiting such an anime blog), did you know anyone who could cook as well as Yoshida? When I was in high school, the only people who could even cook were my friends who were sons of restaurant owners. Typically, they made the sons cook while the daughters did hostess/waitress type tasks. I didn’t really learn how to cook until college, when it was either learn to cook or eat Taco Bell every night.

(I liked the happy meal montage, if anything because everyone gets jealous of Yuji for getting to eat Yoshida’s cooking everyday. The quickest way to a guy’s heart is through his stomach, and that makes me think that Yuji is much like Koharu Biyori‘s Takaya: they’re either gay or pansexual. Or being a Mystes killed off all of Yuji’s libido.)

Satou also had some halfway decent advice for the boys. If I were the fansub translator, I would have worked “sausage fest” in there somehow… I could never work as a translator fo’ shizzle.

Hecate had like two whole lines this episode, which is somehow on par for her. If I were the episode director, I would have worked in a fanservice scene with the wet clothes… I could never work as an episode director for JC Staff. Sunrise? Definitely.

Whoa, Shana looking respectable. Shana blinked twice during the five second stare between 21:00 and 21:05. In Kimikiss 5, from 11:00 to about 11:10, Kouichi does not blink once. I don’t know why I notice these things.

Wilhelmina is scary…

… but not as scary as Shana-sensei! Egads. I’m tempted do a Shana-sensei vs. Yomako-sensei, Dr. Jack-style post.

(If JC Staff made a Shana series based off of Shana-sensei and Shana-tan, I would watch it. Religiously. It would be the greatest chibi anime series since Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses, and hopefully no Gan-chan to gay it up.)

21 Responses to “shakugan no shana second 6”

This show needs to seriously pick up some pace. So far it’s been even worse than previous season… really sad when the best part seemed to be the Shana-sensei eyecacth you’ve capped above. Also, I assume most (all?) Derailed regulars have seen those two magazine pictures that have made rounds at least on 4chan and animesuki? I don’t know what happens in the novels, but seems some strangeness is afoot.
> “The quickest way to a guy’s heart is through his stomach”
True, but only if Ogata uses long enough a kitchen knife.

Not if she borrows the sword Yuuji was using at the end of the first series. It’s about time someone told the girls to stop ignoring the situation and to take some action, though – the way things were going, I was almost afraid there’d be Yuuji taking up with Wilhemina, given that he sees her every day and she’s more up-front about what she’s thinking than Shana’s been, lately.

I’m somewhat reminded of the beginning of the second arc of gurren lagann, where simon was pretty much worthless emo garbage for a good four or five episodes. It was absolutely PAINFUL to watch, but looking back it was necessary for the story.

I don’t know that I can quite have faith that all this “every character regresses and shana goes all emo for 4 weeks” was all that necessary, but if this episode is an indication that all this crap is over and we can get back to taking names, kicking ass, and eating melonpan, then this series is still very very much redeemable, and depending on the level of asskickery(and melonpan) I may just decide to forgive the past 3 episodes.

>> I’m somewhat reminded of the beginning of the second arc of gurren lagann, where simon was pretty much worthless emo garbage for a good four or five episodes. It was absolutely PAINFUL to watch, but looking back it was necessary for the story.

I’m in the middle of writing a post about Sumeragi’s breasts, but I’ll take the bait. Let’s not turn revisionist here. Kamina dies at the end of 8, so the emo fest begins with 9… but Simon turns GAR in 11. That’s only 3 episodes. Plus Nia gets introduced, and she’s anti-emo. We get a lot of Nia screentime during that period, maybe even more than Simon screentime. And Yoko snaps out of it in 9 (way before Simon) and gives us an epic shower scene. No, not the same as Shana. Not the same at all. (Unless Yoko showering is painful.)

I am getting steadily more disappointed with this series… I sort of want to go find a JC Staff person to pound on for ruining a decent show. Its still redeemable, but looking at the episode preview, it looks like it is going to be a long rehab…

Damn it! We still don’t know yet anything about Bel Masque’s plan about Hayate staying with the group, and then like Jason said, the creator of the Reiji Maigo will appear to claim what is her for right.

Well, it was better than last week’s episode…and the eyecatch was great…and we saw Shana’s flame-haired-red hot eyed manifestation for the first time in a while…but we still haven’t been promised any non-slice of life action ;_;

Still a dreadful balancing act of the two core parts of the show which JC Staff managed so well with in S1…

I’m in so much pain right now. I watched all of Shana first season after reading this blog, and I was looking forward to this second season. The next episode with glasses boy I will skip, just like I did with ep 5. I can’t believe I’m giving this show so many chances. I dropped Nanoha StrikerS in 3 episodes. Argh!!!! What are you doing with these awesome series, you bastards!!!!

I for one did not even bother torrenting this episode, and everything I read tells me not to bother with the rest. With four episodes of emo crap and one more female to go, there’s no way we’re going to get to the plot before the show’s over. And if we do, it will feel awfully rushed.

You know what the problem is? They don’t have a story to tell. So they’re dragging out this barf-bag of joy.

I am not sure how much more of this I can take. Just when I finally think something will happen I am proven wrong. I have not read the Shana novels but I’m beginning to wonder if they are stretching material to reach a full season of episodes. Either that or the novels are really, really boring at this current point.

There’s a reason I used the qualifier somewhat. Admittedly Gurren did it a whole lot better than Shana is doing it(as mentioned, Nia provides good distraction). My point is that I’m not going to give up on the series just yet, especially since Shana seems to be coming out of her emo funk. Now if we get to episode 10, and the story is STILL going nowhere, and we’re still in the middle of slice of life crap only, then I might reconsider my opinion, but for now I’m going to be stubborn and stick it out and hope that JC Staff redeems itself for the past 3 weeks.

Not that I don’t share some of the skepticism and annoyance everyone else is feeling, and if this is only a 13 episode run and isn’t going to turn into a 26 episode run then they’re really wasting time for no apparent reason, but I’m gonna hold out hope and keep watching.

To those mentioning the novels, a link please?
And to whoever mentioned it, would Wilimena/Yuji realy be that bad : s
I agree, the Shana now…. is regressing, I liked the badass devil can care nonamed Shana alot, realy she should regress to the point she becomes like that agan :D
I can somehow see her eventualy snapping and going on a killing spree…..
Given her previous personality it could happen if she thinks there is a small chance that Hecate is Hecate (I forgot her alias sorry – gomen).